DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6912#0118
70
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
any degree of zealous partiality for the beauties of English architecture, in its best
style, can never contemplate the interior of this chapel without surprise and admira-
tion. If other buildings attract attention by their magnitude, this deserves it from
its peculiar smallness. It is so well proportioned, yet so extremely diminutive, that
it seems like a beautiful model for a much larger edifice, or it may not improperly
be denominated a cathedral for Lilliputians. The extreme length of the chapel
within, is only seventeen feet, and the width, or transept, is only fourteen feet; the
perfect form of a cross is preserved, although it stands within an octangular wall.
Of so curious a building, which I conceive to be the only one of the kind in this
country, it is to be regretted that no tolerable account has yet been given to the
public. Even the local historians speak of it as if they had scarcely ever seen the
edifice ! All that Parkin, in his continuation of Blomefield, says of this building, in
the way of description, is in these words, which are taken from Mackerell's pitiful
History of Lynn : " A little distant from the town, and near the walls thereof, stands
another ruinous fabric, called the Lady's-Mount, (alias the Red Mount,) in which,
no doubt, by some remains of architecture, it appears there has been a chapel,
dedicated, as the aforesaid title imports, to the Blessed Virgin."*
Description.—The common appellation of this building, Red Mount, is manifestly
derived from the outer walls of it being of red brick. They form an irregular octa-
gon, about twenty-six feet in diameter, with buttresses at the angles, faced with
stone. Within the walls, a space is left sufficient for a passage round, and in the
centre is a substantial pile of masonry, containing two vaulted apartments or stories,
beneath the chapel itself, which were approached by stair-cases from a door in the
north-east side. The lower one, which is now used as a stable, is about fifteen feet
long, by twelve wide, and, from the original floor, it was sixteen feet high. It had
a window to the east, since converted into a door ; and a fire-place on the south,
now nearly covered with rubbish. There is also a door-way, with an obtusely
pointed arch, and carved soffit, leading from this room through an arched passage,
below the surface of the mount, towards the west. This might originally have been
another entrance, but there is at present no trace of it on the outside. This apart-
ment was probably a kitchen, or a refectory ; but the fire-place does not appear to
have had any chimney since the erection of the present chapel. The vaulted
chamber on the next floor is only twelve feet and an half long, from north to south,
History of Norfolk, fol. p. 611.
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
any degree of zealous partiality for the beauties of English architecture, in its best
style, can never contemplate the interior of this chapel without surprise and admira-
tion. If other buildings attract attention by their magnitude, this deserves it from
its peculiar smallness. It is so well proportioned, yet so extremely diminutive, that
it seems like a beautiful model for a much larger edifice, or it may not improperly
be denominated a cathedral for Lilliputians. The extreme length of the chapel
within, is only seventeen feet, and the width, or transept, is only fourteen feet; the
perfect form of a cross is preserved, although it stands within an octangular wall.
Of so curious a building, which I conceive to be the only one of the kind in this
country, it is to be regretted that no tolerable account has yet been given to the
public. Even the local historians speak of it as if they had scarcely ever seen the
edifice ! All that Parkin, in his continuation of Blomefield, says of this building, in
the way of description, is in these words, which are taken from Mackerell's pitiful
History of Lynn : " A little distant from the town, and near the walls thereof, stands
another ruinous fabric, called the Lady's-Mount, (alias the Red Mount,) in which,
no doubt, by some remains of architecture, it appears there has been a chapel,
dedicated, as the aforesaid title imports, to the Blessed Virgin."*
Description.—The common appellation of this building, Red Mount, is manifestly
derived from the outer walls of it being of red brick. They form an irregular octa-
gon, about twenty-six feet in diameter, with buttresses at the angles, faced with
stone. Within the walls, a space is left sufficient for a passage round, and in the
centre is a substantial pile of masonry, containing two vaulted apartments or stories,
beneath the chapel itself, which were approached by stair-cases from a door in the
north-east side. The lower one, which is now used as a stable, is about fifteen feet
long, by twelve wide, and, from the original floor, it was sixteen feet high. It had
a window to the east, since converted into a door ; and a fire-place on the south,
now nearly covered with rubbish. There is also a door-way, with an obtusely
pointed arch, and carved soffit, leading from this room through an arched passage,
below the surface of the mount, towards the west. This might originally have been
another entrance, but there is at present no trace of it on the outside. This apart-
ment was probably a kitchen, or a refectory ; but the fire-place does not appear to
have had any chimney since the erection of the present chapel. The vaulted
chamber on the next floor is only twelve feet and an half long, from north to south,
History of Norfolk, fol. p. 611.